Find out more about how we are rebuilding the Naenae Pool.
Te Ngaengae Pool + Fitness Community is open!
Dive into the fun at Te Ngaengae Pool + Fitness
Come and check it out and bring your family and friends —we’ll see you at the pool!
Naenae celebrated in style with an opening weekend where thousands celebrated the grand opening with a splash!
Mayor Campbell Barry, Councillors Brady Dyer and Andy Mitchell, along with local MPs, joined the hoards to mark this incredible milestone. From cake-cutting ceremonies to thrilling hydro slide adventures for our amazing colouring competition winners and others, while also enjoying the bustling Hillary Court street market.
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The main pool opens at 5.30am during the week and closes between 6.30 pm and 8 pm depending on the day. Weekend hours are 8am to 6pm.
The kids/leisure pool opens at 7 am during the week and 8 am at weekends and closes between 6 and 8 pm, depending on the day. The zoom tubes are open after school during the week and from 11 am to 5.30 at the weekends.
The fitness centre is open 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays and 8 am to 6 pm at weekends.
You can find full details here Te Ngaengae Pool | Hutt City Pools and Fitness
Te Ngaengae Pool and Fitness
The opening of the new, bigger and more sustainable Te Ngaengae Pool and Fitness in December 2024 marks a new chapter for Naenae, restoring the beating heart of the community.
The $68 million facility, one of Lower Hutt’s most significant infrastructure projects received $27 million in funding from central government under the Infrastructure Reference Group (IRG) fund. Local Government Funding Agency also granted the project a green, social and sustainability loan – saving the council $20,500 annually in funding costs.
The 50m Olympic pool has 10 lanes and two moveable bulkheads so it can be used for multiple activities at the same time. For example, aqua jogging classes, learn to swim programmes and water polo events can all take place at the same time in different parts of the main pool.
Competition swimming can be short (25m) or long course (50m). Other sports include canoe polo, underwater hockey and flippa-ball. A moveable floor will enable the end of the pool to be raised to shallow water depths for learn to swim classes.
A second leisure pool has a shallow section for family fun, and a deeper section with ramp access, seating and hydro jets for maximum accessibility with two zoom tubes (hydro slides) for double the fun.
A splash pool will keep the little ones entertained, along with a bookable poolside birthday party room.
A fitness centre and outdoor BBQ area round out a regional attraction.
The project has been strongly community-led and is using local suppliers and contractors to benefit our communities. It will be New Zealand's first Green Star Five rated aquatic centre and will reduce emissions of the old pool by more than 50%.
Cultural connection
The name Te Ngaengae was proposed by Te Rūnanganui o Te Āti Awa and approved by Council. It reflects the original Māori name of the suburb and is a tribute to the rivers that shaped our land.
Te Rūnanganui o Te Āti Awa gifted the project a cultural history to inform design and is reflected in the architecture of Te Ngaengae.
The building’s roof is reimagined as an upturned waka, and the entrance features a roof canopy that appears as the bow of a waka supported by a 5.5 m “pou whenua”, standing like Tāne, God of the forest.
The community has also contributed to the design in the form of individual woven stars captured on digital film, “Nga Whetu”. There is a weaving pattern to the changing room tiles and “Ara Moana” pattern to the pillars that support the main pool roof.
Explore inside
To take a 360 view of inside the pool areas simply click on the image below then move your phone or drag the image to move and view the space from all angles.
Main Pool
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Leisure Pool |
Video description: Check out an overview of recent progress on Te Ngaengae Pool and Fitness.
About the Project
| 2022 |
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Deconstruction completed & construction begins |
| Stage 1 - Foundations |
| 2023 |
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| Stage 2 – Structural frame complete |
| Stage 3 – Roof, glazing and cladding commences |
| 2024 |
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| Stage 4 – Pool and building services, internal walls and pool tanks |
| Stage 5 – Internal fit-out, final touches, test and commissioning complete |
| Grand opening |
| Te Ngaengae Pool and Fitness will include: |
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50m Olympic-size pool to FINA requirements – 10 lanes wide |
| 2 moveable bulkheads to enable multi-use of the main pool |
| 2 zoom tubes |
| Spectator seating for up to 600 people |
| Leisure pool with family-friendly shallow section and deep section with ramp access, seating area and hydro jets |
| Splash pool for young children |
| Special poolside party room for birthdays |
| Fitness room and Gym |
| Improved connection to the outside space |
| Improved access with single level across all public spaces |
| Outdoor BBQ area with seating and sunshades |
In line with our commitment to being carbon zero by 2050, the build and design of the new pool has a strong sustainability focus.
The old Naenae Olympic Pool ran on natural gas and was a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The new pool will reduce emissions by nearly 50%.
The design team is working alongside Crown agency Callaghan Innovation to support being the first aquatic centre in Aotearoa New Zealand to have a Green Star Five rating. Green Star is Australasia's largest voluntary sustainability rating system for non-residential buildings, fit outs and communities.
Achieving this rating starts right at the start, and we recycled or reused 80% of all building materials, saving more than 13,000 tonnes of scrap metal and concrete from going to landfill. For example, concrete from the pool and bleachers was crushed on site and re-used to fill the pool void.
Community salvage days provided an opportunity for people to take home a piece of the old pool, including tiles, wood and old fittings and furniture, which also diverted materials from the landfill.
Sustainability features will include:
| Design | Energy |
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| A building resilient to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters | High efficiency heat recovery air-conditioning units providing dehumidification and air-conditioning |
| High level of maintenance and serviceability of services and structure | Metering and monitoring of energy and water use |
| Using sun-shading or smaller windows to reduce heat gain and high efficiency glazing using low-E glass and thermally broken framing | Centralised heating, cooling and electrical systems |
| Stainless steel tank construction - less embodied carbon than concrete base/walls | Solar PV system (upgrade option) |
| The use of Glued laminated timber for the main pool hall structures | Energy efficient LED lights |
| EV parks with charging points and secure bike stands | Fine tuning of pool water temperatures |
| High quality indoor air quality; high standards of acoustic, lighting, visual and thermal comfort | Energy efficient pool services, for e.g., backwash water heat recovery |
| Ability to separate operational waste |
In 2021, Council approved a budget of $68m as part of the 10-year plan. In 2020 Council received co-funding of $27M from central government as part of investment in COVID Response and Recovery, which will be managed through a partnership with Crown Infrastructure Projects (CIP) via the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group Fund.
Local Government Funding Agency also granted the project a green, social and sustainability loan – saving the council $20,500 annually in funding costs.
Work on the new pool began following an extensive community consultation project in 2019. In 2021, we shared draft concept designs with the community resulting in the Voice of the Community Part 2 which has helped to shape the final design.
The Naenae Community Advisory Group meets regularly to provide a voice of the Naenae community on the pool project. For more information, please contact naenaeprojects@huttcity.govt.nz
To ensure the pool delivered on what the community wanted, Council carried out significant engagement over 3 months for people to have their say through interviews, community open days and workshops and a city-wide survey.
Pool users, the Naenae community, and residents of wider Lower Hutt agreed on replacing rather than repairing the pool. People wanted a 50m pool with improved accessibility, a more welcoming entrance, and easy flow to great outdoor spaces. They also wanted the zoom tube returned.
A community advisory group was established to work alongside the project team and inform decisions as needed. The CAG has been an integral part of all three projects.
The project was designed to deliver the most possible benefit to the community. An evaluation framework identified the main benefits of the pool:
- Improving the health and wellbeing of residents
- Increased connection for the Naenae community
- Local economic development opportunities through procurement and jobs
- Environmental benefits from an environmentally efficient facility
Where possible, local companies were used to provide employment and training opportunities for Lower Hutt residents and services and materials were sourced from local companies.
- It's taken more than 250,000 person hours to build Te Ngaengae Pool and Fitness.
- The main pool took 4 and a half days to fill and holds 2.6 million litres.
- The old Naenae pool averaged 460,000 visits a year so we’re expecting Te Ngaengae will likely exceed that number.
- The main pool concourse and community room can seat more than 400 spectators, and up to 600 with temporary seats.
- Te Ngaengae will be New Zealand’s first Green Star Five pool, recognising the huge effort that’s gone into its sustainability – for example reducing energy use of the old pool by 53% and saving 56% in carbon emissions.
- We recycled or reused 80% of all demolition material from the old pool, saving more than 13,000 tonnes of scrap metal and concrete from going to landfill.
- The features reducing total carbon use by 56% include using timber (including some reclaimed from the old pool), stainless steel pool tanks and lightweight fabric ceilings.
- There are more than 250 parking spaces (including 13 mobility spaces) within two minutes or 150 metres walk to the pool, and a further 300 on-street spaces within five minutes and hundreds more within 10 minutes’ walk.
